New Rule Aims to Expand People’s Access to Supplemental Security Income

The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced that it is updating its definition of a “public assistance household” to ensure that financially vulnerable Americans have greater access to Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

SSI payments are granted to adults and children with disabilities or blindness, and to individuals aged 65 and above, to help beneficiaries meet basic needs such as food, clothing, rent, and medicine.

Those who apply for SSI payments must meet strict income and resource requirements. The SSA has now decided to relax one of these rules to help beneficiaries by expanding the definition of a public assistance (PA) household.

Under the new definition, PA households will include homes that receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments, as well as homes where not all members receive public assistance.

Previously, PA households were defined as homes where all members received some kind of public income maintenance (PIM) payments. SNAP is the first PIM benefit that the SSA has added to PA households since it was first defined in 1980.

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